I read the news today oh boy! Page 1,358

Quote: Horseradish @ 1st November 2013, 8:06 PM GMT

But the same was true of working conditions for secretaries - and many of those generations think in much the same way. To them, the modern emphases are not only different but often insubstantial and wrong. I don't think they are right. But I don't think any generation so far has got it right - at least not in Britain.

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The whole sexual harassment in the workplace thing is a minefield; I suspect it has contributed to the rise of online dating. In the past the workplace was where you were most likely to meet a partner, but now you are frightened to smile at a member of the opposite sex in the office unless you give offence.

Since sexual harassment is essentially an abuse of power, you would have thought increasing workplace equality and female empowerment would have taken the heat out of the issue, but in reality the reverse seems to be true. Women seem more sensitised to attention, and more anxious to protect themselves. One suspects that efforts to raise awareness of the issue might have been just a little too successful.

I have never had any problems with female staff, in most cases they have continued to come to me for help and advice long after I have ceased to be their manager; but even so as hems and blouses have been self-consciously adjusted, I have found myself thinking, oh come on I wasn't even looking... Only then you start questioning yourself, well was I looking? Okay, maybe but only a glimpse, I wasn't leering or anything, just noticing, I can't help noticing... oh hell, maybe I am a perv, but what am I supposed to do, fit f**king blinkers?

You can start to see why the imans began insisting on women wearing niqabs.

Of course changing gender roles mean that these days it is as likely to be female bosses flirting with male subordinates, but on the whole men seem less threatened by this. On the one occasion a female manager openly made a pass at me, I was uninterested but really rather flattered. She was ever such a nice lady and I felt comfortable that I would be able to decline politely without repercussions other than a little awkwardness.

I do find all this mock horror and outrage at people's behaviour - in a time when attitudes were 100% different to those held today - a little self-indulgent.
I'm sure we could all dig up our (great) grand-parents and tell them off for being racist scum - it would be about as useful.
Of course it plays into the Daily Mail et al's hands - they're never happier than when were raving about pedo's and conspiracies - and buying their shit-rag.

And if the Mail can blame it all on the BBC that is just gravy.

Quote: Lazzard @ 2nd November 2013, 10:57 AM GMT

I do find all this mock horror and outrage at people's behaviour - in a time when attitudes were 100% different to those held today - a little self-indulgent.
I'm sure we could all dig up our (great) grand-parents and tell them off for being racist scum - it would be about as useful.
Of course it plays into the Daily Mail et al's hands - they're never happier than when were raving about pedo's and conspiracies - and buying their shit-rag.

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This is not even remotely similar to people being racist or attitudes changing over time.

Quote: Lazzard @ 2nd November 2013, 10:57 AM GMT

I do find all this mock horror and outrage at people's behaviour - in a time when attitudes were 100% different to those held today - a little self-indulgent.

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Self-indulgent?

Hmm

No ...

I just hate the thought of grown men repeatedly sodomising children

And I'd quite like these men brought to justice

Sorry if that bothers you!

I think Lazzard raises a valid point, not all the abuse was seen as abuse at the time.

We need to distinguish individuals actions rather than a media created block charge, as hysteria only raises questions it never answers them.

There is a vast difference between a 15 year old girl acting like a groupie being porked by a Rock Star to men singling out kids homes to rape children.

Using modern standards we can draw a line, but you can't do it retrospectively so you need to aquatint yourself with an older mindset in order to gauge.

Jimmy Saville would have been a vile creature regardless of time and place, but the concern is that in some cases that experience of a youth where different mores existed is being revisited with the benefit of a more politically correct hindsight. That those who might not have considered themselves to be victims at the time have recast themselves in that role.

That might not be the case, and it may be that, for instance, every rock stars slightly underage groupie has been crying into her pillow every night for the past forty years, which would be desperately sad. But where there is an understanding of consent it is asking a lot to anticipate and take responsibility for emotional damage, and while we might all be more sensitive to such concerns today, such considerations were unlikely to have occurred to priapic young men in the unenlightened nineteen seventies.

Quote: Tursiops @ 2nd November 2013, 9:50 AM GMT

On the one occasion a female manager openly made a pass at me, I was uninterested but really rather flattered. She was ever such a nice lady and I felt comfortable that I would be able to decline politely without repercussions other than a little awkwardness.

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But the little awkwardness of bending her over the photocopier would've felt much better Tursio. What were you thinking of, man?

Quote: Harridan @ 2nd November 2013, 11:05 AM GMT

This is not even remotely similar to people being racist or attitudes changing over time.

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How do you account for the fact that the age of homosexual consent has lowered from never to sixteen in the last 46 years?
Sounds like attitudes changing to me.

There was a time when you could grab a homosexual by the elbow and take them to a police station, if you were lucky you were given a lost bike as a reward.

Quote: lofthouse @ 2nd November 2013, 11:15 AM GMT

Self-indulgent?

Hmm

No ...

I just hate the thought of grown men repeatedly sodomising children

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As opposed to everybody else who really loves the thought of grown men repeatedly sodomising children?

I have to admit the idea of being buggered by a full grown zebra

Disturbs me more it keeps me tossing all night

Quote: sootyj @ 2nd November 2013, 1:04 PM GMT

I have to admit the idea of being buggered by a full grown zebra

Disturbs me more it keeps me tossing all night

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Quote: chipolata @ 2nd November 2013, 1:01 PM GMT

As opposed to everybody else who really loves the thought of grown men repeatedly sodomising children?

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As opposed to some people who don't think it's a big deal and we should stop going on about it!

Feckin' hell ! What next in this hellish weather?

Artist David Pearce, who lives just outside Swansea, said his daughter's 11ft trampoline was blown across the garden in high winds.

"The roof nearly got torn completely off our shed and our daughter's trampoline took off. It smashed her garden swings and ended up in our hedge," he said.